The Centre acadien has a mission:

• of collecting, of preserving and of classifying all that deals with Acadian history and culture, particularly that of Nova Scotia;
• of making this material available to the professors, to the staff and to the students of the University, as well as to the public in general;
• of promoting and of providing an outlet for the Acadian history and culture in Nova Scotia, firstly within the Maritime Provinces, and secondly within other community groups in Canada, in the United States of America and abroad.

In order to carry out its mission the Centre acadien has a triple mandate:

1. to collect information relating directly or indirectly to the Acadian history and culture of Nova Scotia, and to also collect Université Sainte-Anne institutional archives, for the purpose of research and teaching;
2. to evaluate, to describe, to classify and to store the collected information;
3. to disseminate publicly the collected information.